Lego Ninjago: Return of the Serpentine
by Daisy Peartree
Summary: After the great battle between good and evil, Ninjago is at peace. That is, until the Serpentine escape. The ninja are called into action as the notorious snakes wreak havoc on a small village. But what happens when they lose? The origin of the sacred flute is revealed as is the ninja meant to oppose the Anocondrai, if there were any left. Rated T just in case.
1. Chapter 1: Escape and Defeat

"No!" yelled Skales, still banging on the door.

The serpentine had been stuck underground for so long. Although they did not know it, Ninjago was at peace. The dark Lord had been defeated and Garmadon was good again. Everything was resting after the big battle, but the serpentine were not. They were determined to make it out of the stone prison that held them. All they had been able to eat were the rats that had somehow made it in. None of them were crazy enough yet to turn to cannabilism like the Anacondrai.

Skales banged the door again and this time it opened. On the other side was a masked man and Pythor.

"Well, well," said Pythor,"Look at what we have here. You fools need some help?"

**At the Destiny's Bounty**

The ninja were called to the bridge. As soon as Zane entered he saw the screen._ This is not good_, he thought.

"What's going on now?" asked Kai, impatient as always.

Nya pointed to the screen,"The Serpentine are back."

It was easy to see what they were doing. The serpentine were driving people out of a village. They were pulling people out of their homes, throwing the old onto the streets and locking the doors. Other serpentine were herding everyone out of the village. These gave screaming children to random people and chased them out,literally. It looked like an intense game of tag.

Nya turned around,"Well, you guys-," she started to say, but they were already gone.

People were still running, panicking, when the ninja arrived. With one look at each other, the ninja were off. They found it easy, after everything, to defeat the serpentine. Or, at least, they thought it was easy. There was no way for the ninja to know that it was a trap.

"You missed me,"said a hypnobrai to Kai, whose back was turned.

He whipped around expecting to defeat a little serpentine and instead found himself face to face with Skales. Or should I say eye to eye.

"One ninja down," Skales said to himself.

Not far away a similar thing was happening to the black ninja. After fighting, and defeating, ten serpentine, Cole ran over to help Jay. Halfway over he felt somebody behind him.

"Cole, don't turn around!" Jay yelled, but all Cole heard was his name.

Already he had stared the hypnobrai in the eye. Jay closed his eyes and attacked the remaining serpentine that he had already been fighting. He looked at the ground before opening his eyes and saw that the only ninja still fighting was Zane. Zane had watched Kai get tricked and when he felt someone behind him he kicked it without turning around.

"Ow!" yelled Jay, he had been the one behind Zane.

"My apologies," said Zane,"I had thought that you were a serpentine."

"Yeah, well I'm not," Jay winced as he was pulled to his feet.

Meanwhile the Serpentine were running away with Cole and Kai. They ran towards a dense forest.

"They're getting away!" yelled Jay.

"We should stop them before they are able to hide in the woods," Zane said as they began to give chase.

At the edge of the city the ninja were stopped by two hypnobrai who jumped out of the shadows.

"All ninja down," chuckled one of the snakes.

The serpentine with Cole and Kai had already made it to the forest and were out of site, not that anyone on the ground cared. Zane and Jay were behind. On the outskirts of the forest was a small house. It looked deserted, but when the two hypnobrai, Zane, and Jay reached it they heard a girl singing. The music pulled Zane and Jay out of their trnace and caused the serpentine to cover their ears and slither away. All at once the singing stopped.

Jay went to knock on the door, but Zane stopped him. They did not know what was inside. As Jay withdrew his hand the door opened. In the doorway stood a girl with long brown hair and dark blue eyes. She was dressed in a purple tee and jeans. She motioned for them to come in and then turned and walked inside. With some hesitation, both Jay and Zane followed.

They ended up in a kitchen where the strange girl was pouring them some tea.

"One sugar or two?" she asked them.

Neither answered so she set the sugar in the middle of a small table.

"You can sit, you know. I'm not dangerous," she said while she set the table with three cups, a teapot, and cream.

Jay sat down, but Zane remained standing. The girl finished setting the table and noticed Zane still standing.

"Really," she said,"you should sit."

Reluctantly he sat down. The girl added sugar to her tea, seemingly unaware that the ninja were staring at her.

After a while Jay couldn't stand it any longer,"Who are you?" he asked.

The girl looked up in surprise,"I'm sorry, did I forget to introduce myself?"

The ninja nodded their heads.

"Sorry, I'm Willow," she told them.

"I'm Jay and this is Zane," Jay said.

Willow laughed,"I know who you are, everyone does."

"Oh, right," Jay said.

"Were you the one singing?" Zane asked suddenly.

"Me? Yes. Why do you ask?" Willow replied sounding unsure.

"We were under a trance, courtesy of the hypnobrai, but it seems that it broke when we heard your voice." Zane told her.

"Well, that's strange," she said, although she didn't sound like she thought that it was strange at all.

"Hey, we should bring you back to the ship so that you can meet Sensei Wu,"Jay said.

Willow's eyes lit up at the thought.

"That would be awesome," she said,"I just would have to pack. I'll be right back."

And with that she ran out of the kitchen. When she returned she was carrying a small suitcase and an empty bag.

"What is the bag for?" Jay asked, indicating the empty one.

"My tea set," Willow replied while she pack up the teapot and cups.

The ninja were reminded of Sensei Wu. He always had tea with him.

"What about your parents?" Zane asked Willow.

After a moment she admitted,"I'm kind of an orphan."

Everyone went silent. Outside the sun was beginning to set. The trio left the house in a matter of minutes.


	2. Chapter 2: Mysterious Connections

**I apologize that this chapter is so short. I kinda was having some trouble.**

* * *

Over in the corner, Kai and Cole were chained up. They didn't need to be, but they were. Pythor was not going to take any chances. Already three of the ninja had escaped and he wasn't positive that it was smart to trust Skales. The cave where the serpentine were hidden had no windows, but even without them everyone knew that it was night. Perhaps it was a shift in the air or maybe everyone had really good internal clocks, but even the prisoners were falling asleep and they couldn't technically sleep. Not surprisingly, however, Pythor was not tired. He had slept enough after being eaten by the devourer and then thrown onto the top of a building when it exploded. He paced the room, unsure of what to do now that he had all the serpentine, two ninja, some random town people, and the masked man.

If only those imbeciles had managed to obtain all of the ninja, thought Pythor to himself.

"Having deep thoughts?" asked a voice from the shadows.

Pythor jumped, but it was only the masked man that had been so much help to him.

"I'm having deeper thoughts than anyone else in this hole," Pythor said.

The man laughed a deep humorless laugh.

"Well except you," Pythor added as a side note, the man was not someone to be trifled with.

"I hope that you have a new plan. The old one failed," the masked man said.

He meant to blame Pythor, to rile him up just for the fun of it, but Pythor promised himself that he would not get annoyed this time. The man might be a man, but Pythor was older.

The man smirked,"Would you look at that. Does anything annoy you anymore?"

He waited. If he was waiting for an answer, Pythor wasn't giving him one.

"Ha!" the man exclaimed,"Guess not. Just come up with a better plan this time."

With that the masked man left. When he was gone Pythor started to draw up a new and foolproof plan.

* * *

It did not take more than ten minutes for Jay, Zane, and Willow to reach the Bounty. There was no talking on the way there. As they neared the ship Zane noticed that everyone was on the deck. Even from the ground, he could see worry etched into their faces and suddenly it hit him. He realized that, while all five ninja left the ship, the wherabouts of only four were known. From the look on Jay's face, Zane could tell that he had just remembered too.

"Did you see what happened to Lloyd?" Jay asked under his breath.

"No, I forgot that he had come along."

"Oh, this is not good. This is really not good."

"What's not good?" Willow asked the two of them.

"It seems that we have left a ninja behind," Zane replied.

"Is this ninja green?" she asked.

"Yeah! Did you see him?" Jay asked eagerly.

Willow opened her mouth to answer, but she was interrupted by Nya.

"Where's Kai?" she asked.

No one seemed very keen to answer. They didn't have to, Nya saw it in their eyes. She looked angry, though at whom, no one could be sure.

"What happened to Lloyd?" Garmadon asked when everyone made it inside.

"You mean, you didn't see?" Jay asked back, panic creeping into his voice.

"The screen went dead as soon as you reached the village and I haven't been able to fix it yet," Nya told him.

"It's okay," said Willow,"I saw him following us. He seemed fine."

For the first time everyone seemed to notice her. Sensei Wu looked shocked for a second, but then it passed.

"Hello. And who are you?"

"Just, Willow." Willow said, as if it were no big deal.

"We brought her here, because she has a unique voice," Zane explained,"Would you mind if I told them?" he then asked Willow.

She shook her head, indicating that he could tell them.

"It seems that when we heard her sing," he continued,"Jay and I were broken out of the trance that we were put into by the hypnobrai."

"Why didn't Cole and Kai hear it?" Nya questioned.

"The serpentine with them knew about me and covered their ears. Lucky for these two, the serpentine escorting them were stupid," Willow replied.

"I wonder how they knew," said Zane thoughtfully.

"Oh, you know, I chased them out of the village once. Actually it was really funny, as soon as I started up they covered their ears and started screaming,'It's the ninja and their accursed flute! Run! Run for your lives!' I had so much fun. If only I was aware that they had entered the village today. I could have stopped them easily and then you guys wouldn't be having such trouble and-" as Willow began to really work herself up she was interrupted.

"It is not your fault. Everything happens for a reason and I believe that we were supposed to meet you. The past is in the past and now we must work towards our future," said Sensei Wu sagely.

At that moment Willow saw the green ninja walk in. Actually he was limping.


	3. Chapter 3: Breakfast is Over

**iluvninjagogirl:Yeah, he could be considered alright. He's beat up, but not dead.**

* * *

Lloyd looked awful. Both of his eyes were black, his suit was torn, his arm hung at a funny angle, and he had several cuts and bruises.

"Lloyd! Are you okay? What happened?" cried Misako.

"I twisted my ankle," he said as he threw himself into a chair.

Everyone looked incredulously at him.

"Oh," he said when he noticed everyone staring,"and I lost against the serpentine."

"You and everyone else," said Willow.

Lloyd looked at her,"Who're you?"

"Willow."

"What did you mean when you said that everyone else lost against the Serpentine?" he asked.

"I meant that the Serpentine whipped ninja butt."

"How?"

"I don't know. Do you think that I was there?"

"Well, yeah. I assumed that you were, seeing as you're here and everything."

Willow opened her mouth to continue the argument by saying that he shouldn't be so quick to judge, but she was cut off before the words even left her mouth.

"Lloyd, how about we go and get you fixed up before dinner," Misako said, worried about his physical condition.

She was obviously worried about his mental condition as well, being his mother and all, but that wasn't exactly the highest priority at the moment. As she helped Lloyd out of the room she turned around as if remembering something.

"Zane could you prepare dinner tonight?" she asked.

Without waiting for an answer she left. Zane,too, left shortly after. Looking around, Willow realized that it was now only her and the two old men, Nya and Jay had snuck out without anyone noticing. Willow didn't feel very comfortable and wished that she had an excuse to leave and possibly get some fresh air. At the same time she wanted information.

"I hear you guys have been around for a long time," she said, not wanting to jump right into questions.

"A lot longer than others," replied Sensei.

"So I'm guessing that you know a lot," said Willow.

"We know enough that we're still alive. What do you want to know?" Garmadon said.

"I want to know whether you two know anything about me. Why I am so special?" Willow was unable to beat around the bush anymore.

She watched for any signs that they knew anything. After a long silence she decided that they didn't. It was a long shot, after all. The last person that she suspected knew anything left when she was only five. He was a great father, but he didn't stick around, just like her birth parents. Ever since then, she was in the care of her orphan director's sister. She was a kind lady, but wasn't around much now that Willow was older. Lucky for her, the villagers were very kind. They visited often and she almost always had a guest in the guest bedroom. They probably wondered where she was.

Lost in thought, as she was, Willow almost didn't hear the call for dinner. She followed Garmadon and Sensei Wu, since she didn't know how to get anywhere. The meal that night was delicious. Mostly she usually would have soup or something else easy to make. She didn't have a lot of time in the evenings. Zane had made spaghetti and meatballs. For dessert there was a rich, chocolate cake. With a full stomach, Willow sat back and listened to conversation. It was a light one to help get everyone's minds off of the empty seats.

At the end of the meal Nya got up to show Willow where she would sleep. First they went back to the bridge where Willow had left her bags, then they went to an empty bedroom. There was only one bed, where Willow lay down and fell asleep as soon as the door was opened.

* * *

Pythor leaned farther over his map and scribbled something. He, literally, was scribbling on the map. There was no point to it, it just helped Pythor think and it made it seem like he was doing something when he wasn't. As the sun sank below the horizen, Pythor's eyes began to droop. He began to dream of taking over the world. All at once the solution to his problem presented itself. It was so simple, why did he not think of it before. The purple snake jumped up and made a triumphant noise. Now that he had a plan, no one would be able to stop him.

* * *

The next morning Willow woke up early. She quickly unpacked her things and tried to retrace her steps from the night before and return to the dining room. When she got there the room was empty. One glance at the clock told her why, it was six in the morning. Knowing that it would probably be a while before anyone was up, Willow went to the deck for some fresh air. It was a crisp, cool night before it had rained and the air still tasted damp. Willow took a deep breath, she loved this kind of morning. Thinking about it, she thought that maybe she could do something useful while she was up. An idea occured as her stomach rumbled.

* * *

When Jay entered the dining room, he found everyone sitting around chowing down on pancakes. He took a seat and joined in.

"Wow Zane, these are delicious," he said through a mouth of pancake.

"But I did not make these," Zane had assumed that it was Misako who had made breakfast.

"I did," said Willow from the other end of the table.

Jay tried to respond, but his mouth was now so full that no one could understand what he was saying. He tried to swallow his large glob of food and Nya had to perform the Heimlich Maneuver so that he didn't choke to death. The pancake flew onto the table. Everyone pushed away their plates, breakfast was over.

"Time to train," Sensei Wu said hurriedly.

Everyone readily agreed. As they left the room Willow cleared off the table. She did it as quickly as possible so that she could go watch the others train. Above deck nothing was going on.

"Are you guys practicing doing nothing?" asked Willow.

"No, we were waiting for you,"Sensei Wu said benignly.

"Why?"

"It is time for you to train," he said.

"Ok, but I'm not much of a fighter." Willow walked over to Jay and Zane and stood next to them,"What are we starting with?"


	4. Chapter 4:An Old Man's Mistake

"That will be up to Jay and Zane. They will be your teachers," Said Sensei Wu.

"I think that we should start with hand to hand combat and then move into various weapons," Zane said.

Willow nodded in agreement with this plan. It is important to know how to fight without help and then work with tools to make these skills more effective. They jumped right in without hesitation. Teaching it was slow going, emphasized by Willow's uncoordination. It took at least an hour to teach her one move and by then they were wiped out. Nevertheless they all worked to their limits and even tried to push beyond. Willow was the first to collapse, her body finally giving out. Then, after lunch, she was trained more, this time focused more on strategies that could be useful in defeating an opponent. This did not tire her out, her mind worked until the last second. By dinner, everyone was sufficiently exhausted. It took all of Willow's energy just to lift the fork to her mouth. She and the ninja turned in early.

Much of the week passed in the same manner. Every day Willow grew stronger and more coordinated, until she could take down the ninja. After that they turned to weapons. This was exceedingly difficult, even more so than the martial arts, for they had to find the right weapon for Willow. She tried all sorts; one sword, two swords, throwing stars, scythes, nunchucks, and the bo staff. None felt right in her hands.

She didn't feel right carrying a tool for taking lives. It was for protection, but it still was hard for her. The one weapon that she could carry was the knife and she wasn't too bad using it. Willow pretended that it was a simple kitchen knife, something that she would use to cut up vegetables. In the end everyone just let her use it.

The night after making the decision was different than all the others and yet the same. It was the same time that dinner started, the same people at the table, and the same moon in the sky, but the conversation was radically different. All the other nights they had discussed Willow's training and Lloyds recovery, his arm was still broken, but it was getting better and his ankle was completely healed.

Earlier that day, during a short break, Willow went looking for Sensei Wu. He hadn't been seen all day, so she was sent to check for him. For the first time, she entered his room. The door was open and she popped her head in to see if he was in there, the room was empty. Just to make sure he wasn't there, she knocked on the bathroom door, there was no reply. As she turned to leave the room, something caught her eye. It was a picture on his dresser. Only half was visible, the other being stuck under a book. Willow at first just glanced at it, but had to look closer. The person visible in the photograph was her, when she was 4.

She reached out to look at the rest of it.

"Willow, did you find him?" Willow's hand stopped a few inches from the picture.

"No!" she yelled back.

She knew that she should return to the deck. With a last regretful glance at the photograph, she left.

Before dinner, Willow snuck back to Sensei Wu's room. Lucky for her, he was up in the dining room, turns out he had gone shopping and forgot to tell someone. Purposefully, she crossed the room to the chest of drawers. She hesitated, thought, before actually reaching out. It felt like an invasion of privacy, even though it was a photograph of her. Steeling herself, Willow pulled the photograph out from under the book.

She stared, the other person in the photograph was Sensei Wu. He had an arm around the young Willow, the joy on his face was matched only by hers. Willow remembered that day, it was her fourth birthday, but she didn't remember Sensei being there. According to her memory, it was her father who was next to her.

Fumbling slightly, Willow turned over the picture. On the other side were the words,"Me and my daughter on her fourth birthday." A few things erupted in Willow at those words. The first was happiness that after all this time she had found her father. The second was anger, that he left her when she was so young. Third she was sad, maybe he had left, because there was something wrong with her, perhaps he didn't love her. Lastly she was still angry, because he could have told her the first day that she arrived at the ship.

Clutching the photograph, Willow stormed up to the dining open the doors, she marched over to Sensei Wu. Silently, she held up the photo. Sensei Wu looked from the picture to Willow and back, realization dawning on his face.

"I'm sorry," said Sensei, and he really did look sorry, but Willow was too angry to notice.

"I can't... you know... so hard after you... maybe you could have," she wasn't shouting yet, but that was only because she couldn't figure out what to say.

After some thought she continued,"You could have told me."

"I know," replied Wu.

This wasn't the right thing to say.

Willow started to shout,"Oh, you know? So you know how much I missed you after you left, how worried I was when you never returned. I thought that you didn't love me, I thought that you had gone because there was something wrong with me. I was five when you left! I could never remember your face. And now that I've found you, it turns out that what I was thinking must've been true, why else would you have kept quiet! When I arrived on this ship, you should've said something," her voice quieted and it sounded to others like she was winding down now, but she was still furious,"you should have told me."

"I should have, but I didn't know what to tell you," Sensei Wu said quietly.

"You should have said something along the lines of 'I am your father and I am so sorry that I had to leave you when you were so young.' And then you should have given me a plausible reason to forgive you," Willow said in a fierce whisper.

Without further ado, she turned and ran from the room. Quickly, before anyone could come and stop her, she left the ship and disappeared into the woods. She was angry and had to calm down. There was no calmer place than the forest.

* * *

"What was that about?" asked Nya.

She and everyone else had seen what happened, but they didn't understand it.

"I have made many mistakes," Sensei Wu said wearily.

"But Sensei, what mistake could make Willow so angry?" Zane asked.

Willow hadn't presented herself as the yelling type. She was fairly cool-headed and calm.

"She was upset, because she found this and I did not tell her first," Sensei showed them the photograph.

Everyone looked at him.

"So, she was angry, because you had a photo of you and her at a birthday party?" asked Jay, the dullest one there.

Sensei turned the photo around so that they could see the back.

"Woah, you're her father?" everyone was surprised.

"Yes,"

"I did not know that you had a child," said Misako.

"She was adopted. I knew her parents a long time ago and when they passed on, I took care of Willow,"

"I sense that there is more to the story. Please, Sensei, tell us," Zane waited.

"I will start at the beginning..."

* * *

**I promise that the story will start to pick up. There's just a lot of information that I need to squeeze in before it does.**


	5. Chapter 5: Plans and Stories

Misako left when Sensei began the story, a story that she already knew part of. She knew the beginning half, the half about the origin of the flute. If she hurried, she could probably return in time to hear the rest, but first she had to fetch Willow and make sure that she was okay, wherever she had gone.

Willow was already walking back to the ship from the woods. Of course, she had been running and was a fair way in. Her anger had vanished in the trees, but she waited a little while so that others could cool down. No doubt, they were furious with the way she had acted. It was a shame that her anger had gotten away from her like that. She had really wanted a nice reunion, whenever she saw her adoptive father again. It was something that she had dreamed about for ages and it was a complete disaster. Not only that, but it was her fault.

Lost in thought as she was, Willow almost didn't notice what was right in front of her.

* * *

The masked man stood in the corner and watched as Pythor shared his plan with the Serpentine. It was met with cheers, but it wasn't a good plan. As a matter of fact, the masked man could see several flaws and couldn't see what it would accomplish. It didn't matter, he could use it to his advantage. All he had to do was play his cards right.

He returned to the Ninja's prison and unlocked them. There was no way for them to run off anyway. He led the two to a chamber he had made especially for his entertainment. All along the walls were various torture devices. He only brought the ninja in here to imagine all the fun they would have. It was no fun to cause harm if the harmed didn't react. The masked man couldn't wait until Pythor's plan failed so that he could use his devices on ninja, instead of limiting himself to the captured villagers.

* * *

"A very long time ago, I can't say exactly when, the Serpentine called for war against the people of Ninjago," began Sensei. Everyone was so interested in the story that they didn't even notice Misako leave,"They wanted to be the ones in charge and they would have done anything to get their way. The leaders of Ninjago tried everything to stop the war that they wouldn't have been strong enough to survive, but nothing would satisfy the Serpentine except complete conquest. In last and desperate move, the leaders asked anyone with an idea to share it. At first, nobody had any. And then an old woman stepped forward and said that she would help. Before the war, everyone would have laughed, but in the light of what might possibly save them all, no one said a word. The old woman said that her voice was powerful enough to stop the Serpentine and negate their unique abilities. However, she did not want to fight, she had young ones at home and would not leave them. Instead, she presented them with several flutes that she had imbued with the power of her voice and she told them that they would be a perfect substitute. The flutes worked as well as she said. Later on, all but one were lost to the sands of time. The woman's children grew up and her daughter had a voice as beautiful as she. The voice was passed down from mother to daughter until Willow was born. Her mother would have had to teach her how to protect herself, as her mother had taught her, but she was unable to. She died shortly after Willow was born."

"How?" asked Nya.

Sensei made to answer, but was, of course, interrupted by an out of breath Willow and Misako.

* * *

**I'm really sorry that this chapter took me as long as it did to upload. I tend to get my computer taken a lot. But it's up now, so I hope it was interesting, if a bit confusing.**


	6. Chapter 6: Why Can't You Hear Me?

**This would have been up a lot sooner, but there's no internet at band camp. Also I would like to say that I am planning on this getting a bit darker in the next few chapters, you know what with there being a room specifically for torture. Believe me though, I won't go into gruesome details. **

* * *

"We leave now!" shouted Pythor to the crowd of Serpentine,"Get the ninja."

They were going to use them as bait. The red and black ninja would lure in the other two and then Pythor would have all of them. His plans to destroy the ninja would, finally, be complete. And then he could start on his plans for world domination.

* * *

The sound of voices ripped Willow out of her reverie. She stopped in her tracks, cautious. Looking around, she noticed that she was in a part of the woods that were unfamiliar to her.

"Thosse ninja won't know what hit them," said a hissing voice.

Suspicious, Willow peered through the thick foliage. On the other side was a whole army of Serpentine with Pythor and the two ninja in the center, Willow couldn't remember their names. She saw that they were walking free and a dangerous idea came to her. It would tell the Serpentine that she was there, but it wasn't as though they would really be able to do anything. Not only that, but she would be able to return to the ship with something actually accomplished and the ninja would be free from the Serpentine. Really, there were no cons to it.

Willow waited a few seconds for the two to get closer before she started her song. It was just an old lullaby she had heard once. The Serpentine covered their ears when they heard her, but the ninja didn't react. She sang louder, but they did not seem to hear her. Her confusion at this had disappeared when she saw the earplugs in their ears. It was a mystery as to why the Serpentine gave the ninja earplugs, but did not wear any themselves, especially Pythor, but that was of, what Willow considered to be, little consequence.

She stepped out onto the path. Her eyes were trained on her destination, the ninja. It was possible that they would attack her, but she tried not to think too much about that. As she drew nearer, her singing stopped.

It wasn't voluntary, but her voice was stuck in her throat. Immediately, Willow knew she was in trouble. The Serpentine were all around her and, without her singing, they were completely able to attack and overwhelm her. She pulled out her knife, she wasn't going down without a fight, but someone in the back yelled,"Retreat!"

This was met with general confusion and then a stampede of running snakes. Willow was lucky enough to make it out of the ranks of Serpentine before they started. She pushed her way through the woods, desperate to make it back to the ship now. Now that she knew roughly where the Serpentine were, that is. In her haste, she ran straight into Misako. She tried to tell Misako what just happened, but again she could not speak. Finding that her voice would not come, Willow grabbed Misako's arm and pulled her along.

* * *

Willow burst into the dining room with Misako in tow. Everyone felt slightly apprehensive, Willow still looked angry, although she probably would have looked angrier if she wasn't doubled over and panting.

"What happened?" asked Garmadon.

Willow opened her mouth, but no words came out. With a look of frustration she motioned for a piece of paper and a pencil. After quite a bit of scrambling, who knew it was that hard to find a pencil on a ship, they were provided. Trying hard to make her writing legible, Willow started spelling out what happened;

_ I ran into the Serpentine. I saw the ninja in the middle and thought 'Oh, I could sing and help them escape.' but they had earplugs in. So, I figured that I could walk over to them and pull the earplugs out while the Serpentine were otherwise occupied. Next thing I know, I can't speak or sing and the Serpentine are hightailing it back the way they came._

"You can't sing? How are we going to save Cole and Kai. We don't have the flute anymore and it's going to be really hard to get the staff. What if we can't save them? What if they get stuck with the Serpentine forever?" Jay's tone was panicky and Nya tried to calm him down.

"Did you see where they were headed?" Nya directed the question at Willow.

_Yeah, actually, I did. They retreated to the North._

"Retreated?"

_ Like I said, they ran away. Don't ask me why, all I know is that some guy in the back yelled, 'Retreat' and I almost got ran over._

"But why did they run?" Zane's question wasn't really directed at anybody.

Willow only shrugged her shoulders. They shouldn't have run when faced with a single person holding a knife. Especially when they did something to stop her from singing.

"Could they have planned it, so that they could take away your voice?" Zane asked.

_ No, I don't think so. I heard one of them say something about ninja being surprised. I'm not a ninja. What I'm wondering is how they did it._

* * *

Lloyd listened to the conversation and tried to follow, but he was having a hard time reading the words upside down. He felt very frustrated, he hadn't done anything in days. During the fight with the Serpentine he had been beat up easily and was injured to such an extent that his mother probably wouldn't even let him help find the Serpentine lair. Instead, he would be stuck on the ship. Even after defeating the Overlord and saving all of Ninjago, a broken arm and overprotective parents put him out of commission. Well, Lloyd wasn't going to stand for it. He decided that the next morning he would help somehow, broken arm or not.


End file.
